


from the castle to the woods

by nightshade002



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Crying, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Healer Iwaizumi, Hurt, Injury, Iwaizumi's backstory edition, Magic, Physical Abuse, Prequel, Self-Hatred, Torture, Violence, but it's whatever, god i really hope that doesn't become one of my Things, iwaizumi's like 15, prequel to of hidden towns and the people that find them, technically currently he'd be called a physician
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-02-02 18:16:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12731742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightshade002/pseuds/nightshade002
Summary: Iwaizumi never used his magic to hurt anyone, never even considered doing so.(Magic is an abomination and anyone that can use it is despicable.)He knew the penalty was death, should he ever get caught.(Witches aren't people.)He just wanted to save his father.(You're no son of mine, witch.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [of hidden towns and the people that find them](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10572282) by [nightshade002](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightshade002/pseuds/nightshade002). 



> Prequel to [of hidden towns and the people that find them](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10572282). it doesn't really matter which order you read them in (both of them are currently unfinished lmao) but I feel like probably read this one second.
> 
> This prequel is, by no means, a happy story.

His father was dying, that much was certain. Iwaizumi looked down at his hands, then back at his father. It would be risky, but he couldn’t just leave his father to die. Not when he could do something. He wasn’t very experienced, but something was better than nothing. He took a deep breath and set his hands on his father’s chest. 

He felt the magic flow through his hands, felt his father’s heartbeat strengthen, felt… his own self loathing rise up in an attempt to make him stop. He shook his head. He couldn’t deal with that now. He had to focus on his father. (His father would say the same things he was thinking, though. Magic was an abomination and anyone that could use it was despicable.) He stopped, taking his shaking hands away.

If he healed his father too quickly, it would be obvious that he had magic. Or at least that magic was involved. And if it wasn’t found out that it was him right away, there would be a witch hunt. For now, though, his father should live and no one would find out.

“Hajime?” _Wait, no, that wasn’t-_ “What’s going on?”

He panicked, his father wasn’t supposed to be conscious yet. It was too fast, no one would believe that he had healed like that.

“You were sick and, uh, I found something to heal you,” he answered, keeping his voice as steady as possible.

“I _know_ I was sick, but we don’t have a cure for it. Certainly not something that would be this effective. So what happened?” Iwaizumi hesitated. “Did you find a witch? Is that what happened? Because I’ll kill whatever bastard that put magic in my body and manipulated you.”

“Even if they saved your life? You’d still kill them?” Iwaizumi asked quietly.

“Hajime, _please_ don’t tell me you actually _did_ find a witch.”

“I didn’t find a witch,” he assured him, “I was just… you’d really kill a person that saved your life?” 

“Witches aren’t people.” 

“But-” Iwaizumi bit his lip. Defending witches, even in hypothetical situations was dangerous. 

“So if you didn’t find a witch, what did you do? If you somehow found a cure, I’d like to know.” 

“Uh, it was, um…” Iwaizumi tried his best to think of something to call a cure, anything, but he couldn’t. He pressed his palms to his pants to stop their shaking. “Uh…” 

His father stood up and walked over to him, using his height to his advantage and towering over Iwaizumi. “What did you do? Did you already know a witch so you didn’t have to _find_ one?” 

Breathing was becoming difficult for him, but he tried his best not to start gasping for breath. “I-I…” he could barely speak. 

“Hajime!” his father yelled. Iwaizumi flinched away. 

He wrapped his arms around his chest and looked down. “It was me,” he whispered, “It was me. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please… please don’t kill me.” 

“You’re my son, Hajime, of _course_ I won’t kill you,” he said, voice softening. 

“Y-you said-” 

“How could I kill my only son?” his father replied warmly. “But I think you should stay in here for a few days. Just so that you don’t panic and accidentally tell anyone else.” Iwaizumi nodded. “I’m going to alert the King that I’m nearly recovered.” 

Iwaizumi sank to the floor after his father left. The tears that had been threatening to fall through the entire exchange finally falling. He sat on the floor and sobbed, whether in relief or fear, he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t stopped shaking and he wasn’t sure he would for a while. It was lucky that he hadn’t been killed as soon as his father found out. Out of everyone he had ever known besides the King, his father hated witches the most. 

There was a knock on the door and Iwaizumi jumped. He wiped the tears from his eyes and stood. The knock came more insistent this time. 

“I’m coming,” he called out, voice steadier than he thought it would be. He hoped his eyes weren’t as red as he knew they should be. 

There were soldiers at the door. Five soldiers and the King and his father. He took a half step back. 

_Out of everyone he had ever known besides the King, his father hated witches the most._

“Father-?” 

He didn’t bother hiding the look of disgust on his face. “You are no son of mine, _witch_.” 

Iwaizumi backed up more. “I-I’m not-” 

“Then how would you explain his miraculous recovery?” the King asked. “You told me yourself that he likely wouldn’t make it through this sickness. Were you lying then?” 

“I- Well, no, but I- I never said it was _impossible_ ,” Iwaizumi managed to force out, hand gripping the edge of the door so hard his knuckles were turning white. 

“If you weren’t lying then, then you must be lying now. Afterall, Iwaizumi-san said that he had researched for _years_ and was unable to find a cure. Do you think yourself a better physician?” 

“No, Your Majesty.” 

“Do you think this man to be a liar?” 

“No, Your Majesty.” 

“So why do you think he would by lying about you being a witch? It must be very hard for him to admit, seeing as he cared for you deeply.” 

“I am not a witch. I cannot use magic,” Iwaizumi insisted. “I… I don’t know why he would lie.” 

“He wouldn’t,” the King responded, making a gesture. The soldiers started forward and Iwaizumi slammed the door shut, moving whatever he could behind him as he ran through the room. He wasn’t sure where he would go. His room was attached, up a ladder and through another door, but there was no where to go from there. There was a window, but he was stories up and he couldn’t climb down. Not before the King could send soldiers there. 

He slammed the door to his room shut, too, and pushed his dresser in front of it. He paced around as one of the soldiers banged on it. 

Iwaizumi was shaking again. 

Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, _nothing_. Perhaps if he was less terrified, he would be able to do something. It wasn’t like he could use magic for this. He didn’t know how to do anything other than heal. He glanced towards the window. _In theory…_ In theory, he could probably survive a jump out the window. In theory, he could heal himself enough to run. But that would automatically condemn him and there was no guarantee that he actually would be able to heal himself. There were no hidden exits from his room, he’d already checked time and time again. 

The dresser was merely prolonging the obvious. He knew that. But he wouldn’t just move it. He sat on the floor next to his bed, out of immediate view of the soldiers when the would eventually come in. He hugged his legs close to his chest and rested his face on his knees. 

The banging got louder and louder and he could hear the dresser move slightly with each hit. He brought his hands up to cover his head and tried desperately to stop shaking. 

The door opened. 

The dresser was moved out of the way. 

The soldiers found him. 

A boot connected with his side and he cried out in pain. Laughter. They were laughing at him. They were kicking him. _No_ , only one was kicking him. Two were laughing. 

“Is that really necessary?” The kicking stopped as the soldier looked away from Iwaizumi. “He’s just a kid, you know. He’s not even sixteen.” 

“His age doesn’t matter if he can use magic. He could be a hundred and sixteen for all we know.” 

“But we watched him grow up, hell, you even took a turn watching him while Iwaizumi-san was busy. He’s already got a death sentence, does he really need a beating beforehand?” 

“It’s what witches deserve.” 

The other soldier was quiet after that. As much as Iwaizumi wished he would keep talking, keep defending him, he knew he didn’t deserve it. He deserved the beating he was getting. 

Once he was sufficiently roughed up, bleeding or bruised in most places on his body, they dragged him away, down to the dungeons. 

He was chained up to the wall of a cell with the same soldiers guarding him. He wasn’t crying anymore. The tears just wouldn’t come. He was left with just a numb sensation. The shaking had stopped, too. He had seen it enough in his father’s patients to know he was going into shock, but that didn’t mean he could really do anything about it. All he could really do was stare detachedly at the floor. 

“Are the chains needed? I don’t think he’s going to try anything.” It was the soldier that had spoken up for Iwaizumi earlier. Nakamura, was it? Yes, Iwaizumi remembered him. He was always kind, sometimes snuck him extra sweets. “Don’t you think he would have when we first arrested him?” 

“You never know with witches. He’s probably just waiting for the right time to strike.” 

“He’s a _kid_ , Katou. I doubt he even fully understands what’s going on right now. We don’t even have proof that he _is_ a witch,” Nakamura argued. 

“Iwaizumi-san said so and the King seems to believe it. That’s proof enough for me,” Katou responded. “You’ve too soft a heart for this.” 

“I-” 

“I know just the thing to remedy that.” Katou stood and walked over to the fire burning low in the corner. He pulled something out. Iwaizumi couldn’t see but he had a good guess. 

“You wish to brand him a _traitor_?” Nakamura asked incredulously. 

“Not me. You.” 

“I won’t, you can’t make me.” 

“Then I suppose we’ll have two witches on trial tomorrow. Would you really give up your life just so that someone else can brand the both of you?” 

Nakamura held out his hand for the branding iron. 

Iwaizumi’s eyes snapped up at the sound of the cell door opening. Nakamura, Katou, and one of the other soldiers stepped in. 

“Please don’t, please, please, please, no, no, nononono-” 

The soldier put a cloth in his mouth and cut off his pleas. He was pulling on the chains, trying to get away from the white hot end of the iron. 

“Do it,” Katou growled. 

Iwaizumi _screamed_ , writhed in pain, squeezed his eyes shut. He wished he could disappear through the wall. His shoulder was in agony. The iron was pulled away just slightly, but pushed back with even more force. When it was finally pulled all the way off of him, he opened his eyes and tiredly looked up at the soldiers. 

He _wished_ he knew enough magic to be considered a witch. He’d curse them all. Maybe not Nakamura, but the rest. Well, Nakamura would get a less-bad curse. Katou would get the worst. 

“You see that look? Does that look like the kind of face a ‘kid’ would make?” 

“Perhaps he resents you because of all of the unnecessary injuries you’ve given him.” 

They put him through countless other torments in the night. Ones that he wished he could have at least been knocked out for, but he wasn’t that lucky. They kept him awake and aware through the whole thing. Nakamura didn’t stand up for him again. Never joined in, but never said anything. 

In the morning, they took the gag out and washed him off. Or rather, they dumped a few buckets of ice cold water on him to rinse away the blood and sweat and other things. They only gave him his pants back and he was glad for the cover they offered him. Cover he hadn’t had all night. Apparently it was important that the brand stayed visible. 

He didn’t have the strength left in him to resist, so he simply allowed them to drag him to the center of the castle town. The sight of the stake with the wood piled around it gave him some energy, but only enough to lift his head just slightly higher. 

The trial was short, really just the King sentencing him and him not being able to argue back. When he was tied to the stake, he had to bite down on his lip to keep from crying out in pain. His shoulder was pulled in the right way to stretch the brand on it and hurt like hell. 

The fire was lit. 

There was nothing he could do. He didn't know any magic but healing magic, and he could barely do that. The flames didn't take long to reach him. His chest was heaving, lungs longing for air, everything was burning. 

And then everything wasn't. 

He opened his eyes and looked around. It was as though the flames had frozen. The heat was still there, far too hot for him to be comfortable, but it wasn’t advancing. The spectators were frozen in shock. He’d think time had stopped if the King wasn’t yelling at his soldiers. If the soldiers weren’t running, but not towards him. Towards a figure in a cloak. 

_Iwaizumi, run,_ a voice in his head said. The ropes dropped immediately after that. He hesitated to run through the flames, but the voice came back, telling him to run again. 

The heat was nearly unbearable, but he didn’t burn from running through the flames. He didn’t know where to run to, so he just ran for wherever there wasn’t people. They had all gotten over their initial shock, though, and were now closing in on him. He hadn’t thought he’d be glad to not have a shirt, but as it turned out, it was easier to run from people if they couldn’t get a good grip on you. 

_Faster, Iwaizumi. They’ll catch you again like that._ He shook his head. He was trying, but he had so little strength left. _I can help you with that, but you have to get away from them first. I can save you, but I won’t sacrifice my own safety for your sake. Find a building to hide in, one without windows. I’ll find you there._ He nodded, finding a small burst of energy with that. 

He dodged down a narrow alleyway so that the people couldn’t follow him so closely. He turned a corner, then another quickly after, then finally found a door he could open. Anything and everything heavy he could find was slid in front of the door and when he was done with that, he sank to the floor without an ounce of strength left in him. 

“That’s all a bit excessive, don’t you think?” His eyes snapped up, wide and afraid. The man in the cloak from the town square stood in front of him. “Relax, I’m not going to hurt you. I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of saving you from that just to hurt you.” Iwaizumi relaxed, but only just slightly. The man sighed, pushing down the hood to his cloak. “It’s just me.” 

“N-Nakamura-san?” Iwaizumi managed, leaning over to cough into his hand and grimacing when he saw speckles of blood. 

“Don’t talk, your throat is probably in really rough shape.” Iwaizumi nodded. “Listen, for what it’s worth, I never wanted to hurt you at all, and I’m sorry. I’m not the greatest at healing, but I can do a bit, if you’d like.” Iwaizumi nodded and tried not to flinch when Nakamura put his hands on him. All of the minor aches and pains, the ones that really barely registered in comparison to everything else, disappeared almost instantly. Having someone else’s magic in him felt strange to say the least, almost like when his foot fell asleep. It was borderline painful when the magic reached the worst parts of him, but he was willing to tough out more of the pain in order to heal. Like his father always said, things had to get worse before they can get better. 

“Th-thank you,” Iwaizumi murmured. 

“No innocent person deserves that,” Nakamura responded. 

“But I… I am…” he trailed off, not entirely capable of admitting it. 

“You are innocent,” Nakamura insisted. “You may be able to use magic, but so long as you only use it for helping others, you are innocent. Not to mention you are a child.” 

“I…” 

Nakamura shushed him. “We can talk about this later. For now, I think it’ll be best if I hide you in my house. No one will look there, it’s on the other side of town.” 

“How are we-” 

“Magic, Iwaizumi. Same way I got in here with the door barricaded. We teleport.” Iwaizumi didn’t have much time to prepare before his world was _spinning_. He held his head in his hands when it finally stopped. “Sorry about that, it’s better when you don’t know it’s coming, actually. I have to go pretend to be looking for you, so I have to leave you alone here. You’ll be safe, though.” 

Iwaizumi nodded and Nakamura disappeared from sight. He didn’t move from his spot on the floor, but he did drift in and out of consciousness until Nakamura came back in the evening. 

“Did you really just stay on the floor the whole time?” He helped Iwaizumi to his feet. “You were welcome to go anywhere in the house, you know.” 

“I couldn’t… couldn’t really move,” Iwaizumi forced out. Nakamura led him into his room and eased him down onto the bed. 

“Stay here, at least for now. We’ll need a better place for you eventually, but rest up for now. I’ll be in the other room if you need me.” 

He tried to sit up. “I can take the spare room.” 

Nakamura smiled and ruffled his hair. “Thanks, but we’ve already got you in here. I can handle a night or two on a worse mattress.” 

Iwaizumi nodded. “Thank you. For everything.” 

“Of course, Iwaizumi. Anything for a friend.” Nakamura closed the door as he left. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _sorry iwaizumi_

He didn’t sleep the whole night. Any time he got close, he'd hear something or feel something or see something. There was nothing there. He would know, he checked _everywhere_ in the room every time he jerked awake. By the time morning came, he was thoroughly exhausted. 

Iwaizumi jumped at the soft knock on the door. He held his breath, afraid that one of the other soldiers could have found them out. The door slowly opened and he watched in terror.

“Iwaizumi, are you awake?” Nakamura asked quietly.

Iwaizumi nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay, I’ve got to head out, but I’ll be back just after dark.”

“Promise?”

“Of course. I couldn’t leave you all alone, I’m really all you’ve got anymore,” Nakamura smiled. He tossed Iwaizumi something. A bracelet. “Put it on. It’ll let me know if you’re in trouble or anything and I can come back to help you.”

“Thanks,” Iwaizumi said quietly, slipping the bracelet onto his wrist. It instantly tightened, almost painfully.

“And don’t leave the house today,” Nakamura commanded. Iwaizumi wasn’t planning on going _anywhere_ in the near future. “For your safety. Anyway, I should really be off. Get some rest, I know you didn’t get any last night.” He closed the door before Iwaizumi could respond.

Iwaizumi looked down at his wrist. The bracelet seemed much more… permanent than he liked. He wanted to leave as soon as possible. And when he did, he wanted to leave _everything_ behind. Even Nakamura. The bracelet made it seem like Nakamura expected him to stay much longer than a few days.

\--

Even a few months was apparently still not enough for Nakamura. He told Iwaizumi to stay in the house every single day before he left and if Iwaizumi brought up leaving, he would laugh or redirect the conversation or flat out tell Iwaizumi no. Iwaizumi was starting to get restless in Nakamura’s house, but he didn’t want to seem ungrateful and leave while Nakamura wasn’t home.

So Iwaizumi stayed. He wasn’t happy, but he stayed. Nakamura sometimes taught him magic, but he honestly preferred when he didn’t. Every time he did, Iwaizumi ended up getting hurt in some way and Nakamura didn’t have the healing knowledge to fix him completely. As a result, he had scars nearly everywhere. Iwaizumi tried to refuse, some of the time, when Nakamura suggested a new lesson, but he always ended up agreeing.

“Again, Iwaizumi,” Nakamura said, interrupting his thoughts. He was a lot less nice than Iwaizumi had remembered. It was probably just some sort of tough love.

“I can’t-” he started, but stopped when he saw the glow of fire in Nakamura’s hand. His eyes focused solely on that and his voice wavered when he whimpered, “Please don’t.”

“Then do it _again_ ,” he growled and extinguished the flame. “I’m only doing this to help you. You know that.”

“Help me do what?” Iwaizumi asked. He stood up again and took a step toward Nakamura. “You haven’t let me leave yet, are you ever going to?”

“It’s not-”

“The right time?” Iwaizumi finished for him. He knew that he really shouldn’t talk like this, especially during his lesson, but he couldn’t help it. He was just so frustrated. He wanted to leave. “When _will_ it be ‘the right time’? You keep telling me that over and over! Everyone probably thinks I’m long gone by now, there’s no way so many people are still after me!”

“Which one of us leaves this house every day?” Nakamura asked, deadly calm.

“You do.” Iwaizumi was instantly subdued.

“So which one of us actually knows how many people are still looking for you?”

Iwaizumi looked down and shrugged.

“ _Iwaizumi_ ,” Nakamura said warningly.

“You do,” he answered quietly.

“Why would you know more than me about what’s going on outside?”

“I… I don’t,” Iwaizumi answered quietly.

Nakamura ruffled his hair, smiling. “Do you really need to leave just yet?”

“No,” he replied, grateful that he wouldn’t be receiving any type of punishment for arguing.

“That’s what I thought.” The smile dropped from his face. “Now. _Again_.”

Iwaizumi fell into a defensive position and Nakamura attacked once more. He was trying, he really was, but any magic related to combat wouldn’t work. He fell again. “I yield! I yield!” he cried, bringing his hands up to shield his face. The attack continued for a few seconds before Nakamura finally let up.

“Iwaizumi, why am I doing this?”

“To help me,” Iwaizumi replied automatically.

“Why do you continue to be so _difficult_?”

“I’m sorry,” Iwaizumi said, looking at his now bleeding hands and thinking of how he still couldn’t do any magic without unintentionally blocking himself. It was much worse with the combat magic that Nakamura was trying to teach him. He could manage with the basics, but anything past that was too much. “There must just be something wrong with me.”

\--

Iwaizumi had had enough. He was done being stuck in Nakamura’s house. Done with the constant training. He shoved what little belongings he had into a bag before trying to pull off the bracelet Nakamura had given him over a year ago. He would have liked to keep it, but he didn’t want Nakamura to be able to find him after he left. He wanted to be _gone_.

But… the bracelet didn’t budge. It just wrapped tighter and tighter around his wrist when he tugged at it. He decided to let it be.

After double checking his belongings, not hard when he had next to nothing, he headed for the door. Only to find that he couldn’t walk through it. Well, he could, but the bracelet wouldn’t cross the threshold.

“I’m disappointed in you, Iwaizumi.” He spun around to find Nakamura standing behind him, arms crossed. “Go back inside.”

“What’s going on?” Iwaizumi asked shakily. “Nakamura-san, what’s happening?”

He barely resisted when Nakamura shoved him back into the house, closing the door after himself.

“I told you not to leave,” Nakamura said darkly and Iwaizumi shrank away from him. “Is that really such a hard order to follow?”

“I just-”

“ _Shut up_ ,” he growled. Iwaizumi’s mouth shut on its own as he cowered in the corner. “Much better. Do you want to get caught? Do you want to go back to the dungeons? Do you want to die?” Iwaizumi shook his head frantically. “Then just do what I tell you to. I don’t need to be worrying about whether or not you’ll get caught during the day because of your own _delusional_ decisions. If you do what I tell you to, I can guarantee you’ll live.”

“I’ve been trying! I just… I can’t fight with magic.”

“Then learn.”

“It’s not that simple,” Iwaizumi argued. “I can’t hurt anyone! I won’t!”

“Maybe,” Nakamura said, walking closer to Iwaizumi and grabbing him by the wrist over the bracelet, “you should get rid of that soft heart of yours. I’ve been trying to help you with that, but you don’t seem to be taking the hint. No one in the world cares that you won’t hurt anyone. Not a single person. And do you want to know why?” He tugged Iwaizumi closer to himself. “No one cares about you anymore. Everyone in the world is going to take advantage of you and hurt you as much as they possibly can because you won’t fight back because you’re afraid of hurting them. Everyone. Even me. I’ve pushed so far. Hell, I nearly killed you myself a few times. But you never fought back because you’re just a scared little kid with a soft heart.”

Iwaizumi’s breath left him at that. “S-so the training…”

“That was just to see how far I could go before you would actually fight back in any way.”

“You only saved me so you could…” Iwaizumi trailed off, not entirely sure what word would characterize the past year.

“That’s right,” Nakamura smiled. “And now that you’ve figured it out, we can have even more fun.”

\--

“I was thinking,” Nakamura hummed, forcing Iwaizumi to look up at him, “it’s getting a bit boring with just us two here, don’t you think?” Iwaizumi didn’t answer, but he knew his fear was written all over his face. “I was thinking of maybe bringing Katou in. He always has interesting ideas when it comes to witches. I’m sure he’d help spice things up again. Truly is a shame I can’t ever participate, but I have to keep up appearances.”

“Please don’t,” he said quietly.

“Why not?”

Iwaizumi thought fast. There had to be a legitimate reason, otherwise he was sure things would be much, much worse for him. “H-he could tell the King. We’d both be put to death.”

“Aw,” he cooed, getting right up in Iwaizumi’s face, “don’t tell me you care about me?”

Iwaizumi spat in his face. “Go fuck yourself.” He earned himself a slap and a few extra bruises, but it was worth it.

Nakamura was silent for a while after that before speaking up again. “You know, you’re not really good at anything. Your father is _far_ more skilled with medicine, you can barely run well, it’s honestly a joke that you were put to death. You can’t do shit with magic. You reach your limit so quickly that you can’t do anything useful. You’re really just worthless.”

Iwaizumi took a deep breath and tried to remind himself that Nakamura’s words shouldn’t matter, but he knew they were all true. “I-I’m not…”

“Sure you are,” Nakamura replied simply. “I’ve been around for… hm quite some time now. I’ve never met someone quite so useless as you. You’re barely even a good punching bag.”

“Then let me leave,” Iwaizumi pleaded. “If I’m so useless, let me leave.”

“No,” he smiled, “it’s quite enjoyable to watch you suffer. Especially because I’m sure you thought I was such a nice person before all this, right? I made sure of that as soon as I sensed the magic in you. I knew you’d mess up at some point. It’s just my own little present that it happened to be so soon.” 

“Anyway,” Nakamura said after a brief silence, drawing out the word, “I really think inviting Katou is a good idea. Imagine how surprised he’ll be.”

“Don’t want to,” Iwaizumi muttered.

“Aw,” Nakamura put a fake pout on his face and reached out once more to make Iwaizumi look up, “you don’t really have a choice, though, do you?”

\--

Iwaizumi was drifting somewhere close to sleep when he heard the door slam shut. He could hear the murmur of voices and he would have called out, but Nakamura had been sure to gag him and tie his arms behind his back so he couldn’t do anything. It was so frustrating to have people so close and not be able to do anything. 

He felt so helpless.

The voices gradually faded to nothing and Iwaizumi would have liked to feel relieved, but he knew what was coming. He tried to heal himself, even just a little, but like every other time he’d tried, he failed. In fact, recently, Iwaizumi wasn’t able to use magic at all.

“I still don’t under-” Katou stopped talking when he walked in, pausing to stare at Iwaizumi “... stand. Is that-?”

Nakamura nodded. “It’s Iwaizumi’s kid.”

“What have you been doing to him?” Katou asked quietly. Iwaizumi squeezed his eyes shut and curled in on himself.

“I’ve just been having fun. I was getting bored and I thought you could give me some… ideas,” Nakamura answered lightly.

“You know what could happen if you got caught harboring a witch, right?”

“You’re not threatening to tell, are you?” Nakamura asked, voice going dangerously low. Iwaizumi shivered at the tone.

“Of course not.”

“Good,” Nakamura purred. “Because if you were, I would have to kill you and pin it on him.”

“I guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t.”

“So do you have any ideas?”

Iwaizumi felt the blood drain from his face when Katou smiled. “A few.”

\--

Iwaizumi was woken up in the night by a hand over his mouth. “Don’t say anything. I’ll explain what’s happening when we’re out of here.” 

He nodded, exhaling shakily. Someone was standing over him in dark clothes with a hood covering their face. They cut the ropes off of his wrists and ankles and helped him stand. It was painful, nearly unbearably so, but he was determined to try and escape if he could.

A small part of his mind was worried that it was just another thing designed to torture him. Give him hope of escape before wrenching it out of his hands.

His rescuer let him lean on them for support as they climbed the stairs out of the cellar. They were almost to the door when he realized he still had the bracelet on and there was no way he would be able to leave. He stopped walking and tugged on his rescuer’s sleeve. They turned around and stopped as well. Iwaizumi raised his wrist and tried to tug the bracelet off, but just like every other time he had tried, it didn’t budge.

They held a hand out and Iwaizumi stuck his wrist out. They put their hands around Iwaizumi’s wrist and he felt the bracelet disappear. Sure enough, when they pulled their hands away, the bracelet was gone. They pulled him along again, moving faster this time as they left through the front door.

Iwaizumi’s breath stuttered as he set foot out of Nakamura’s house for the first time in nearly two years. It was almost surreal to be outside.

“You’re not safe yet, keep going,” his rescuer said, pulling him along. “There’s a safe house close by, we’ll stay there for the rest of the night.”

Iwaizumi nodded, following him into a narrow alley. He would have been more afraid of all this, but everything paled in comparison to going back to Nakamura. They stopped in the middle of the alley and his rescuer put their hand on the wall. The stone shifted and opened up into a doorway that they went through. Once the stone had shifted back into a wall behind them, torches lit up along the walls of a narrow passageway. Iwaizumi grabbed onto his rescuer’s arm and stepped behind them, hiding his face and trying to calm his breathing again.

“Wh- _oh gods_ I’m so sorry, I didn’t even think-” they said. “Okay, I fixed it, I’m so so sorry.”

Iwaizumi opened one eye and looked down the hallway once more. Instead of torches, there were little floating lights illuminating everything. “S-sorry, it’s my fault,” he said quietly.

“No, this was definitely my fault. It’s not your fault that you’ve had to go through horrific things. I should have thought of the possibility of you being afraid of fire. Come on, we’ve got to get all the way to the safe house before we can relax.”

“Who are you?”

“You can call me Sawauchi.”

Sawauchi led him down the passageway. When they reached the door on the other end, Sawauchi did _something_ to it before it swung open. Once they were both inside and the door was shut, Sawauchi took his hood off.

“Are you hungry?”

Iwaizumi nodded, looking around the room. It looked like he was in the kitchen of a normal house. There was a living room directly attached and stairs leading to a second floor.

“Feel free to sit down, I’m sure standing is painful. Once Yuda gets back, he can treat all of your injuries. We shouldn’t have to wait long for him.”

“How did… how did you find me?”

“Kaneo was talking to one of the other soldiers about knowing where to find a witch. I took a pretty good guess as to where he might have heard that information, especially because Nakamura has been on our watch list for a few years now," Sawauchi explained as he brought Iwaizumi a plate of food and a steaming cup of tea. He sat down on a chair and left the couch to Iwaizumi. It was run down and old, but it was immeasurably better.  
“Watch list?”

Sawauchi nodded. “Something seemed off with him the first time I met him, so we looked into him. It was hard to figure out, but Nakamura’s lived for a _long_ time. The problem is we didn’t have much evidence that he was doing anything _wrong_. The way he acted around the other soldiers made it seem like he was really a peaceful person.”

“Oh,” Iwaizumi said quietly. “Wh-why did you sa- take me out of there?”

“Because no one deserves to suffer like that. I’m just sorry it took us so long to figure out what was going on.”

“We’re back!” someone yelled from behind Iwaizumi. He jumps and nearly drops the mug of tea. He’s not quite skilled enough to keep from spilling all over himself and the floor.

“Hey,” Sawauchi said sharply and Iwaizumi flinched. He looked at Iwaizumi in surprise before widening his eyes. “Wait, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“I-I’m sorry,” Iwaizumi whispered. “I can clean it up.”

“No, no, I can get it,” Sawauchi said hurriedly. He waved his hand and the tea cleaned itself up. “I’m not mad.”

Iwaizumi nodded silently, hugging his knees to his chest.

“What- _oh_ you found him.” Iwaizumi looks behind himself to see two other people similarly dressed to Sawauchi. “I’m Yuda and this is Shido.”

“I’m Iwaizumi.”

“Nice to meet you,” Yuda smiled. It was much different from all the times Nakamura had smiled at him. Iwaizumi really hoped that Yuda was a different kind of person, too. “Can I heal you?”

Iwaizumi nodded once more, doing his best to relax. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. These three would just end up hurting him more. They were actually working _with_ Nakamura. If they weren’t, Nakamura would find him and take him back and never let him go again.

“Iwaizumi?” Yuda said quietly, kneeling down in front of him. Iwaizumi took a shaky breath, distantly realizing that he was shaking, as he managed to look Yuda in the eyes. “Breathe with me, alright? In, out. In, out.” He repeated that a few times until Iwaizumi calmed down.

“S-sorry, I just-”

“No need to apologize,” Yuda interrupted. “Do you mind if I try again?”

“You can.”

“Give me your hand.”

Iwaizumi does as instructed. It felt _very_ different this time. Yuda’s magic was calming and pleasant and made Iwaizumi feel relaxed. It was honestly the best he’d felt in a long time. Even the small aches and pains were gone. Nakamura rarely ever healed those because he felt like Iwaizumi should be able to do it himself.

“This is all I can do for now, I don’t want to exhaust myself, but hopefully it’s enough to lessen your pain even a little.”

“Thank you,” Iwaizumi said. “I… it’s more than anyone’s done for me in a long time.”

“Of course,” Yuda smiled. “I just wish I could have done something sooner.”

“I-it wasn’t you-”

“We’ve got trouble!” Shido yelled from the door. Iwaizumi snapped his head up, eyes wide.

“It’s him, it’s him isn’t it?” Iwaizumi asked, unable to stop the shivers that started racking through him. “He’s- he’s going to- to-” 

“He won’t get to you, okay?” Yuda assured him quietly. “We won’t let that happen. There’s somewhere you can go where he won’t ever be able to reach you, we just need to get you there. I was hoping you’d be able to at least rest here for the night, but it looks like that won’t happen.”

“Yuda, take Iwaizumi and go,” Sawauchi said. “We’ll hold him here.”

“Right,” Yuda nodded before turning back to Iwaizumi. “Will you come with me?”

“Where?”

“There’s a town in the forest. It’s hidden, for the most part. Nakamura won’t be able to find it.”

“How do you know?”

“I was the one that created it. Only those in need will be able to find it. You definitely qualify for that. The people there will take care of you. There’s a healer in the town who will be able to help with the rest of your injuries. We need to go now, though, if you want any chance of being able to reach it.”

“Okay,” Iwaizumi nodded. He stood up, surprisingly stable on his feet for how he felt.

“Take my hand,” Yuda instructed and as soon as Iwaizumi did, they were on the edge of the forest. “Run and don’t stop until you find the town, okay? I can’t find it with you.”

Iwaizumi stared nervously into the forest. “Why not?”

“Like I said, it’s for people in need. I’m not one of those people. Sawauchi, Shido, and I will take care of Nakamura. We’ll do our best to banish him somewhere far away, but whatever we do, it’ll be enough for you to get yourself to safety.”

Iwaizumi bit his lip and glanced between the forest and Yuda. He took a deep breath. He ran.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyway, a few things
> 
> 1\. Katou doesn't actually know that Nakamura can use magic, he's threatening to falsely accuse him
> 
> 2\. There (might) be an update to (god damn i need a shorter name for it) of hidden towns and the people that find them soon-ish
> 
> 3\. I also might add oikawa's backstory to this fic just because the title fits his story as well
> 
> 4\. how's everyone doin?
> 
> find me on tumblr [here](nightshade002.tumbr.com), [here](theprettysettersclub.tumbr.com), or [here (with friends!)](thewritersquad.tumbr.com)


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